Seed drier



Ev T. EATON SEED DRIER Dec. 23, 1952 2 SHEETS-SHEET l Filed April 5 1950 INVENTOR. BY free/ TEA TON ATTORNEY HG. Z.

Dec. 23, 1952 E, T EATON 2,622,345

SEED DRIER Filed April 5,y 195o 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 IN V EN TOR.

P1/PL Z'-ATON BY j?, 5. M07 /muau/ Patented Dec. 23, -1952 .fri f UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Earl Eaton, Canon City, Colo.

Application April 3, 1950, Serial No. 153,568

1 Claim.

This invention relates to driers and more particularly to improvements in driers for seed such Yas melon seed, grain, and the like.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a drier with superposed successive drying flights and conveyor means associated therewith for feeding seeds from a convenient loading station and discharging them after being dried at a convenient discharge station where they may be sacked or otherwise packaged.

Another object is to provide a novel feeding conveyor for the drier.

Another object is to provide a novel discharge conveyor for the drier.

' Another object is to provide a drier, the nights of which are supplied with drying air from a common manifold.

Another object is to provide the nights with novel means for delivering the drying air to foraminous endless conveyor belts associated therewith.

Other objects are to provide the flights with suitable means for preventing the seeds from falling over the edges or ends of the flights to .ensure that all material passes along the full length of all flights to thus Vprevent any seeds from passing through the drier without being thoroughly dried.

Still further objects, advantages, and salient features will become more apparent from a consideration of the description to follow, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the drier as viewed from plane I-I, Figure 2, portions being broken away and other portions shown in section on line Ia-Ia;

Figure 2 is a section taken on line 2 2, Figure 1 Figure 3 is a section taken on line 3-3, Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a side elevation as viewed from line 44, portions being broken away;

Figure 5 is an end elevation as viewed in the direction of arrow 5, Figure 2, a portion being broken away;

Figure 6 is a section taken on line 6 5, Figure 2; and

Figure '7 is a diagrammatic view showing the air heater for the drier and certain power transmission means for the drier and air heater.

Referring in detail to the drawing, the drier comprises a pair of side Walls IG, I I, end walls I2, I3, and a bottom Wall I4, these walls forming a rectangular casing which is shown as being open at the top, but which may be closed if desired, and suitably vented to permit escape of air from the casing. A plurality of elongated horizontally disposed relatively thin conduits I5, I5a, I5b, I5c, |511, I5e and I5f extend between thewalls I Il, I I, the upper wall of each being provided with a plurality of apertures I6 to permit drying air to escape upwardly from each conduit. A manifold II having air delivery ducts I8, I9 is disposed on the outside of wall I I, these ducts communicating with the horizontally disposed conduits previously described at spaced points along their length. The lower end of the manifold has a connection 2U to which a flexible or other conduit 2I (see Figure 7) may be secured for delivering heated air to the manifold and horizontally disposed conduits.

An endless foraminous belt 22 of wire screen, or the like, is associated with each horizontal conduit, the upper and lower runs of each belt being disposed on opposite sides of an air conduit and the ends passing around rolls 23, 24, as shown for the belt of the top flight, it being understood that the belts and conduits for the various drying flights are all the same. As best shown in Figure 1, the right end of the top belt in the top flight terminates to the left of the right end of the belt in the second flight so that seeds delivered over the end of the former will fall onto the latter. To ensure that all seeds are delivered to a succeeding belt, deflector plates 25 are provided adjacent the ends of each iiight to deflect the seeds from one ight to the next lower flight. To prevent any spillage of seeds'along each belt at the edges thereof, curved plates 26 (see Figure 6) are secured to each of Walls I0, I I these plates being substantially the length of a ight and which engage and bend the edges of the upper runs of the belt upwardly to thus form slight ianges at these edges which prevents spillage of seeds thereover.

A feeding conveyor 30 is disposed -at one end of the drier, this conveyor having an endless belt 3l therein with scoops 32 secured thereto, the belt being enclosed in the conveyor casing and supported therein at its ends by rolls, the upper one being shown at 33, a similar roll being provided at the lower end. The lower end of the conveyor casing is prcvided'with a hopper 34 for receiving a quantity of seeds which may be shoveled or dumped therein. The upper end of the conveyor has a downwardly and outwardly aring portion 35 having a plurality of bales 36 which distribute the seeds to substantially the full width between the edges of the top fof 3 raminous belt, these being fed onto the latter by a roll 31 having paddles P thereon, the roll being rotatably mounted in a trough 38, the inner Walls of which are engaged by the paddles, which latter may be of flexible material.

A chute 40 is secured to the lower wall I4 of the drier below the delivery end of the lowermost flight, that is, at the right end of Figure 1. The bottom of the chute is disposed at an angle, as shown in [Figure 5, and seeds falling therein gravitate to a discharge conveyor 4I having a conveyor belt 42 with scoops 43 thereon, this belt being similar to the belt in the feeding conveyor and similarly mounted therein. The upperv end of this conveyor is provided with a downwardly extending mouth 44 through which the seeds are delivered to a sack or other container..

The supporting rolls for the foraminous belts are journaled on the side walls In, I l of the casing, as shown by bearings 50 (see Figure 4), and by similar journals at their other ends. As shown in Figure 4 the various rolls are geared together with a gear train 5l which elects movement of successive upper runs of the belts in opposite directions as shown by the arrows in {Eligure l. The lowerinost gear of this train is driven by a pulley 52 connected thereto as best shown in Figures 2 and 5. The feeding conveyor is driven from one of `the foraminous belt rolls by pulley 53, belt 54, pulley 55, shaft 55, pulley 5l, belt 58, and pulley 5S, the latter being connected to the lower roll over which conveyor ybelt 3i is trained. The discharge conveyor belt 'i2 is similarly driven by a pulley 60 connected to one ofthe foraminous belt rolls by shaft 8l, a belt 82, and a pulley 03, the latter being connected to the upper roll over which belt 42 is train-ed. The feeder roll 37 is driven by pulley 84 on shaft Si, belt 65 and pulley 66, the latter being connected to the feeder roll by shaft i6?.

Pulley 5-2 (see Figure 7) is driven by a belt Iii connected to a motor Il, the latter also driving a fan 12, by belt 13 and pulley lil, the ian receiving air from a heat exchanger 15, heated by a burner 16, and delivering it to mouth 2t of the manifold through conduit 2 l.

The drier casing may be supported in any man- -ner desired. I have shown a pair of skids H for this purpose on which the device may be dragged. Wheels may be substituted if desired. Belts and pulley have been described for the various power transmission connections; however, this is exemplary only and chains and sprockets, or other power transmission means may be employed in their stead. Motor il may be electric, if electric power is available, or an internal combustion motor, or other prime mover.

If the seeds to be dried are watermelon, cantaloupe, or other melon seeds, the oraminous belts may be made of suflciently large mesh screen to CFI permit free access of drying air thereto but of a mesh such that the seeds will not fall through the interstices of the screen. For smaller seeds such as grain, etc., it will be apparent ythat the mesh of the screen will be finer.

Having described the invention, what I claim as new is:

In a seed dryer of the type comprising a housing having a plurality of vertically-spaced flights of endless woven fabric aprons mounted on spaced end rollers, one` roller of each pair being power driven for moving the upper surfaces of adjacent nights in opposite direction, the nights being olset longitudinally so that the seed discharged from the upper apron of a ilight will drop onto the upper apron of the light next below which moves in the opposite direction, air

distributing means comprising conduits positioned between the aprons of each flight, the upper surfaces of the conduits being perforated to discharge heated air against the under surface of the top apron of each flight, the combination with the above of strips of material attached to the inside of the housing directly beneath the edges of the top `apron of each flight lapping the apron forming supports for the edges thereof and forming also means preventing seeds from falling over the edges of the apron, `means for eeding moist seed onto the upper apron of the topmost ight near one end thereof and for distributing it uniformly over the entire width of the flight apron, comprising a hopper positioned over the receiving end of the topmost flight, a feed rcller in the hopper, said roller having a length substantially equal to the width of the apron, means for turning said roller, a feed elevator terminating above ythe roller and means positioned between the discharge end of the elevator and the top of the roller for eiecting a distribution of the seed along the entire length of the roller. v

EARL T. EATON.

REFERENCES CTED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 10,978 yCormack Jan. l, 188.9 289,635 Farrington Dec. 4, 1883 312,341 Duryea Feb. 17, 1885 1,254,431 Pierce Jan, 22, 1918 1,520,187 Lawson Dec. 23, 1924 2,350,096 Chilton May 30, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 494,946 Great Britain Oct. 31, 1938 

